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Court SystemsDescription Superior Major civil and criminal cases heard in this court. Most case law found in our in legal databases originates from this court system. Inferior A high volume of cases, including criminal cases Often known as “provincial court” Typical jurisdiction: small claims, traffic offences, criminal offences, family matters Federal Some matters go to federal court: e.g., copyright, industrial design, patents, cases around the legality of federal gov’t actions Note: superior and inferior court structures and names will vary between provinces. Check websites, e.g., Provincial Court of British ColumbiaProvincial Court of British Columbia Note: superior and inferior court structures and names will vary between provinces. Check websites, e.g., Provincial Court of British ColumbiaProvincial Court of British Columbia Table adapted from: Legal Research on the Web, Winter 2012 course material, iSchool Institute, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto

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 The terms Case Law, Reasons for Decisions, Judgment (*no ‘e’!) are often used interchangeably  Main content of published case law/judgments should be identical, regardless of reporter  Case law/judgments available through both free and subscription sources

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 Significant overlapping coverage in case law cases covered in various databases  Free sources (e.g. CanLii) are easily accessible  Subscription sources often include: value-added tools such as summarizing headnotes, subject classification, and research tools such as the Canadian Abridgement Digest

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 Style of cause = plaintiff and defendant  This report can be found in the 69th volume of the Dominion Law Reports on page 433  The "2nd" tells you that the DLR has been published in multiple series; the second series was 1956-68  SCBC indicates this was a Supreme Court of British Columbia decision

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 Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation, 7th edition (2010)  Also known as the McGill Guide  The official source for legal citation in Canada, used by the legal community  See Queen’s Legal Citation web page for more guidance on McGill styleQueen’s Legal Citation web page

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 Means you are researching a case to see if… › it has been cited, including “followed”, in subsequent cases › the decision has been overturned in a higher court  The note up tools have different names, depending on the database you use  Process ensures you have found the most recent (i.e., legally relevant) version of a case using the note up tools

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 Terminology for noting up a case differs between databases  Quicklaw terms for judicial considerations: › Distinguished — cited case is held to be inapplicable due to a difference in fact or law. › Explained — citing case adds to, expands upon, or interprets cited case. › Followed —The judge expressly relies on the cited case as a precedent on which to base a decision. › Also: Followed in Minority Opinion, Cited, Cited in Dissenting Opinion, Mentioned, Not Followed, Questioned

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Case Law Law Reports Articles and Journals Canadian Encyclopedic Digest (CED) Canadian Abridgment Digest (CAD)

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 Multiple products on one platform that can be browsed/searched separately  Browse functions on the left, search on the right  Click on LawSource (or CriminalSource) tab to revert to main search screen  Quirk: default searching is for ANY of the search terms entered, not ALL of them › Solution: use quotation marks to search as a phrase or add the word “AND” between each search term

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 Less is more; re-search the most unique words of your search string if you are not getting results › E.g., Instead of Toward a Proper and Complete Instruction for Photo Lineups: Preserving the Probative Value of Identification Evidence, try, Photo Lineups  Relevancy ranking of results is less intuitive

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 Busy interface! Note Search Templates for different products/info types on left, including All CriminalSource Content  CNTR + F to search full text in cases  Browse a particular source with left-side option of “other commentary”; an empty search is possible if you’d like to browse commentary sources by date

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 Search on the right, browse on the left. Browsing is particularly effective in legal databases  Browse individual books/journals (e.g., Drug Offences in Canada) in the Commentary section, left-hand side  Martin’s Criminal Code is found under Commentary>Criminal Legislation>Martin’s Criminal Code and Related Legislation  Less can be more (in terms of search terms entered). This is the case with most legal databases.

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Case Law Legislation Canadian and international legal journals Other legal commentary and texts

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 Tab Searching option › E.g., Legislation, Journals, etc. brings up search templates  Need to find a particular book, journal, or other title? › Enter keywords of source title in Find a Source. Be exact! › Beware Terms and Connectors Search  Many ways to get to the same content in QuickLaw